Human Force Observer Design for Adaptive Robust Control of a Haptic Simulation System

Haptic technology has attracted wide attention because of its various applications, such as surgery simulators. However, some challenging control issues exist, such as unmeasurable force and modeling uncertainties. In this study, the disturbance observer is designed based on the haptic system dynamics to observe the unmeasurable human force which is one of the important parts of surgery simulation. The integration of sliding mode control and disturbance observer force compensation is used to address different uncertainties in modeling, enabling excellent synchronization performance. Consequently, the proposed control algorithm ensures robust stability and good control performance simultaneously.

I. Introduction

Developing technology that can transmit haptic sensations is challenging and improves human hands for many possible applications, such as space exploration, nuclear engineering, and telesurgery. One area where haptics could be useful is in medical training [1].